1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the preparation of solvent filled gel sheets in a continuous fashion. Such gel sheets are used in manufacturing aerogel blankets, aerogel composites, aerogel monoliths and other aerogel based products.
2. Description of Related Art
Aerogels describe a class of material based upon their structure, namely low density, open cell structures, large surface areas (often 900 m2/g or higher) and sub-nanometer scale pore sizes. Supercritical and subcritical fluid extraction technologies are commonly used to extract the fluid from the fragile cells of the material. A variety of different aerogel compositions are known and may be inorganic or organic. Inorganic aerogels are generally based upon metal alkoxides and include materials such as silica, carbides, and alumina. Organic aerogels include, but are not limited to, urethane aerogels, resorcinol formaldehyde aerogels, and polyimide aerogels.
Low-density aerogel materials (0.01–0.3 g/cc) are widely considered to be the best solid thermal insulators, better than the best rigid foams with thermal conductivities of 10–15 mW/m-K and below at 100° F. and atmospheric pressure. Aerogels function as thermal insulators primarily by minimizing conduction (low density, tortuous path for heat transfer through the solid nanostructure), convection (very small pore sizes minimize convection), and radiation (IR absorbing or scattering dopants are readily dispersed throughout the aerogel matrix). Depending on the formulation, they can function well at cryogenic temperatures to 550° C. and above. Aerogel materials also display many other interesting acoustic, optical, mechanical, and chemical properties that make them abundantly useful.
Low-density insulating materials have been developed to solve a number of thermal isolation problems in applications in which the core insulation experiences significant compressive forces. For instance, polymeric materials have been compounded with hollow glass microspheres to create syntactic foams, which are typically very stiff, compression resistant materials. Syntactic materials are well known as insulators for underwater oil and gas pipelines and support equipment. Syntactic materials are relatively inflexible and of high thermal conductivity relative to flexible aerogel composites (aerogel matrices reinforced by fiber). Aerogels can be formed from flexible gel precursors. Various flexible layers, including flexible fiber-reinforced aerogels, can be readily combined and shaped to give pre-forms that when mechanically compressed along one or more axes, give compressively strong bodies along any of those axes. Aerogel bodies that are compressed in this manner exhibit much better thermal insulation values than syntactic foams. Methods to produce these materials rapidly will facilitate large-scale use of these materials in underwater oil and gas pipelines as external insulation.
Conventional methods for gel sheet and/or fiber-reinforced composite gel sheet production formed via sol-gel chemistry described in the patent and scientific literature invariably involve batch casting. Batch casting is defined here as catalyzing one entire volume of sol to induce gelation simultaneously throughout that volume. Gel-forming techniques are well-known to those trained in the art: examples include adjusting the pH and/or temperature of a dilute metal oxide sol to a point where gelation occurs (R. K. Iler, Colloid Chemistry of Silica and Silicates, 1954, chapter 6; R. K. Iler, The Chemistry of Silica, 1979, chapter 5, C. J. Brinker and G. W. Scherer, Sol-Gel Science, 1990, chapters 2 and 3).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,882 (Ryu) discloses an example of a fiber-reinforced aerogel composite material that can be practiced with the embodiments of the present invention. The preferred aerogel composite precursor materials used in the present invention are those like Cryogel®, Pyrogel®, or Spaceloft™ sold commercially by Aspen Aerogels, Incorporated. U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,555 (Ramamurthi et al.) discloses an aerogel matrix composite of a bulk aerogel with fibers dispersed within the bulk aerogel and a method for preparing the aerogel matrix composite.